PBS Nova-Becoming Human Part 2.S37E06.WS-PDTV.XviD.Ekolb

Becoming Human Part 2

Birth of Humanity: New discoveries reveal how early humans hunted and formed families. Aired November 10, 2009 on PBS.

In "Birth of Humanity," the second part of the three-part series "Becoming Human," NOVA investigates the first skeleton that really looks like us–"Turkana Boy"–an astonishingly complete specimen of Homo erectus found by the famous Leakey team in Kenya. These early humans are thought to have developed key innovations that helped them thrive, including hunting large prey, the use of fire, and extensive social bonds.

The program examines an intriguing theory that long-distance running–our ability to jog–was crucial for the survival of these early hominids. Not only did running help them escape from vicious predators roaming the grasslands, but it also gave them a unique hunting strategy: chasing down prey animals such as deer and antelope to the point of exhaustion. "Birth of Humanity" also probes how, why, and when humans' uniquely long period of childhood and parenting began.

The other programs in the series are Part 1: "First Steps," which looks at how, for millions of years, many species of small-brained human predecessors lived, and Part 3: "Last Human Standing," which examines why, of various human species that once shared the planet, only our kind remains.

Format            : AVI
Length            : 465 MiB for 55mn 53s 153ms

Codec             : XviD
Source            : PDTV
Language          : English US
Subtitles         : None
Genre             : Nature/Science

Video #0          : MPEG-4 Visual at 1 028 Kbps
Aspect            : 608 x 336 (1.810) at 29.970 fps

Audio #0          : MPEG Audio at 121 Kbps
Infos             : 2 channels, 48.0 KHz

Enjoy!
Ekolb